London, 2023
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The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow.
Friday 24 February 2023
Wednesday 22 February 2023
Lent: A course in Christian meditation
Here's the sermon I have shared at St Andrew's Wickford and St Mary's Runwell today as part of our Ash Wednesday Eucharist's with the Imposition of Ashes:
When Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, was a parish priest in Huddersfield, a friend of his, who was involved in Adult Education, told him that a course on Zen Buddhist meditation could have been filled three times over and asked why the church was not running a course on Christian meditation.
Archbishop Stephen later moved to a role at the Cathedral in Peterborough and when he told this story there, the Head of Adult Education asked him to run a course on Christian meditation as part of the Adult Education programme. He did, and the course filled up with a mix of those who were already Christians and those who would describe themselves are ‘searchers’.
This experience confirmed his belief that, with the right kind of introduction, many people are open to the riches of Christian spirituality. What better time than Lent for exploring some of that tradition? Lent is a time for going deeper with God; for going deeper into our faith and the riches of its tradition, particularly in terms of prayer.
This Lent we are essentially going to run a course on Christian meditation through our Lent Course ‘Ways to Pray’. Our five-week course explores some different ways of praying: Being Still with God, Prayer Through the Day, Using the Imagination, Multi-sensory prayer, Using Art and Images. The course gives some ideas on aspects of the Church’s tradition and practice that we could explore this Lent, as part of going deeper into God through prayer. Our Quiet Day, here at St Mary’s, on 4 March will also do more of the same. Here are some others ideas and resources too …
The Desert Fathers and Mothers were hermits, monks and nuns who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt beginning around the third century AD. These informal gatherings of hermit monks and nuns became the model for Christian monasticism. Many of the wise words and teachings of these early desert monks and nuns were collected and are still in print as the ‘Sayings of the Desert Fathers.’
One such saying has a significant overlap with today’s Gospel reading: ‘Stay in your cell. Your cell will teach you everything.’ The idea being that being in conversation with God through prayer will teach us everything we need to know. For this reason, when he was once interviewed by Radio 4 and was asked which wilderness would he go to for Lent if he could be taken anywhere in world, Archbishop Stephen replied that he would stay in his own living room. The location for our prayer is not the main point (although quiet and privacy can help); instead, the point is the quality and depth of our prayer.
Having said that, the Celtic Church has given us a model for the precise opposite; integrating prayer into our daily lives. Celtic Christians had a sense of the heavenly being found in the earthly, particularly in the ordinary tasks of home and work, which can blessed if we see God in our tasks and undertake our tasks as an act of worship to God.
This tradition was particularly strong in Gaelic countries and in the late 19th century Alexander Carmichael collected a number of the prayers and poems together in a book called the ‘Carmina Gadelica’ which ‘abounds with prayers invoking God’s blessing on such routine daily tasks as lighting the fire, milking the cow and preparing for bed.’ In more recent years, equivalent contemporary prayers have been written covering every aspect of daily life from turning on a computer to attending meetings, driving a car, stopping for a lunchbreak, and so on.
Some of the most visionary and passionate prayer in the history of the Church derived from the renewal of the Carmelite Order undertaken by St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross. Through quiet prayer, resting in contemplation of God which involved forgetting all earthly things, these attained occasionally prayers of union in which their whole being was absorbed in God.
They frequently described these experiences in terms of the union of lovers in marriage. St John, in particular, described in great poetry the experience of feeling abandoned by God which he described as the dark night of the soul. Their writings can help us understand those times when we feel God is very distant from us as well as those times when we feel an intimate closeness.
St Ignatius of Loyola devised a series of prayer exercises which many have found particularly helpful in the development of their prayer life. The Examen is a daily process for reflecting on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and discern his direction for us. The Examen begins with prayer for light then continues through thanksgiving, reviewing our feelings and focus before concluding with future appointments and the Lord’s Prayer.
Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises are a compilation of meditations, prayers and contemplative practices developed to help people deepen their relationship with God. These are divided into four weeks; not seven-day weeks but stages on our spiritual journey. Week 1 involves reflection on our lives in light of God’s boundless love for us. Week 2 involves imagining ourselves as Christ’s disciples as we reflect on the Gospel stories. Week 3 is meditation on the Last Supper, Christ’s passion and death, while Week 4 is meditation on the resurrection.
These are just some of the resources for prayer which can be found in the Christian tradition (some of which we explore in our Lent Course) and which are available to all of us as we seek to go deeper into God this Lent. These resources can be found in books, through retreats, and by using online meditations. It is possible to travel to centres of prayer or to the world’s deserts and wildernesses in order to learn to pray in some of these ways. But we don’t have to! Like Archbishop Stephen, we could take to heart the teachings of the Desert Fathers to stay in our cell and our cell will teach us everything. Our cell can be our own front room. If we use it for committed, regular prayer this Lent then like the saints, monks and mystics about whom we have thought, we can go deeper into God.
Jesus said: ‘… go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.’
When Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, was a parish priest in Huddersfield, a friend of his, who was involved in Adult Education, told him that a course on Zen Buddhist meditation could have been filled three times over and asked why the church was not running a course on Christian meditation.
Archbishop Stephen later moved to a role at the Cathedral in Peterborough and when he told this story there, the Head of Adult Education asked him to run a course on Christian meditation as part of the Adult Education programme. He did, and the course filled up with a mix of those who were already Christians and those who would describe themselves are ‘searchers’.
This experience confirmed his belief that, with the right kind of introduction, many people are open to the riches of Christian spirituality. What better time than Lent for exploring some of that tradition? Lent is a time for going deeper with God; for going deeper into our faith and the riches of its tradition, particularly in terms of prayer.
This Lent we are essentially going to run a course on Christian meditation through our Lent Course ‘Ways to Pray’. Our five-week course explores some different ways of praying: Being Still with God, Prayer Through the Day, Using the Imagination, Multi-sensory prayer, Using Art and Images. The course gives some ideas on aspects of the Church’s tradition and practice that we could explore this Lent, as part of going deeper into God through prayer. Our Quiet Day, here at St Mary’s, on 4 March will also do more of the same. Here are some others ideas and resources too …
The Desert Fathers and Mothers were hermits, monks and nuns who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt beginning around the third century AD. These informal gatherings of hermit monks and nuns became the model for Christian monasticism. Many of the wise words and teachings of these early desert monks and nuns were collected and are still in print as the ‘Sayings of the Desert Fathers.’
One such saying has a significant overlap with today’s Gospel reading: ‘Stay in your cell. Your cell will teach you everything.’ The idea being that being in conversation with God through prayer will teach us everything we need to know. For this reason, when he was once interviewed by Radio 4 and was asked which wilderness would he go to for Lent if he could be taken anywhere in world, Archbishop Stephen replied that he would stay in his own living room. The location for our prayer is not the main point (although quiet and privacy can help); instead, the point is the quality and depth of our prayer.
Having said that, the Celtic Church has given us a model for the precise opposite; integrating prayer into our daily lives. Celtic Christians had a sense of the heavenly being found in the earthly, particularly in the ordinary tasks of home and work, which can blessed if we see God in our tasks and undertake our tasks as an act of worship to God.
This tradition was particularly strong in Gaelic countries and in the late 19th century Alexander Carmichael collected a number of the prayers and poems together in a book called the ‘Carmina Gadelica’ which ‘abounds with prayers invoking God’s blessing on such routine daily tasks as lighting the fire, milking the cow and preparing for bed.’ In more recent years, equivalent contemporary prayers have been written covering every aspect of daily life from turning on a computer to attending meetings, driving a car, stopping for a lunchbreak, and so on.
Some of the most visionary and passionate prayer in the history of the Church derived from the renewal of the Carmelite Order undertaken by St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross. Through quiet prayer, resting in contemplation of God which involved forgetting all earthly things, these attained occasionally prayers of union in which their whole being was absorbed in God.
They frequently described these experiences in terms of the union of lovers in marriage. St John, in particular, described in great poetry the experience of feeling abandoned by God which he described as the dark night of the soul. Their writings can help us understand those times when we feel God is very distant from us as well as those times when we feel an intimate closeness.
St Ignatius of Loyola devised a series of prayer exercises which many have found particularly helpful in the development of their prayer life. The Examen is a daily process for reflecting on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and discern his direction for us. The Examen begins with prayer for light then continues through thanksgiving, reviewing our feelings and focus before concluding with future appointments and the Lord’s Prayer.
Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises are a compilation of meditations, prayers and contemplative practices developed to help people deepen their relationship with God. These are divided into four weeks; not seven-day weeks but stages on our spiritual journey. Week 1 involves reflection on our lives in light of God’s boundless love for us. Week 2 involves imagining ourselves as Christ’s disciples as we reflect on the Gospel stories. Week 3 is meditation on the Last Supper, Christ’s passion and death, while Week 4 is meditation on the resurrection.
These are just some of the resources for prayer which can be found in the Christian tradition (some of which we explore in our Lent Course) and which are available to all of us as we seek to go deeper into God this Lent. These resources can be found in books, through retreats, and by using online meditations. It is possible to travel to centres of prayer or to the world’s deserts and wildernesses in order to learn to pray in some of these ways. But we don’t have to! Like Archbishop Stephen, we could take to heart the teachings of the Desert Fathers to stay in our cell and our cell will teach us everything. Our cell can be our own front room. If we use it for committed, regular prayer this Lent then like the saints, monks and mystics about whom we have thought, we can go deeper into God.
Jesus said: ‘… go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.’
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Iona - Today.
Tuesday 21 February 2023
God gave Rock and Roll to You
Here's the talk that I gave at Unveiled last Friday:
In the approach to Christmas 2022 several rock memoirs and other explorations of the genre were published that explored the place and influence of religion in rock music. These included Surrender, a memoir by Bono, the lead singer of U2, Faith, Hope and Carnage, a conversation between Nick Cave and the journalist Sean O’Hagan, a memoir entitled Walking Back Home by the lead singer of Deacon Blue, Ricky Ross, and Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song. Greg Clarke, writing about the former two books summed up their themes as being, “Submit, surrender, let God be God, recognise a higher power.” He wrote, “These are the concluding observations of two of the most famous musicians of the past forty years. It’s not very rock and roll.”
In this talk, I want to argue the reverse; that these themes of “Submit, surrender, let God be God, recognise a higher power” are actually very rock and roll. That’s because the roots of rock and soul music are to be found in Gospel music and because a variety of approaches to combining rock and religion have been practised since the birth of rock and roll in the 1950’s with a key distinction being whether one sings primarily about the light of Christ or about the way the world looks in the light of Christ.
In the early days of rock ‘n’ roll a unique event occurred; four of the biggest stars at the time happened to all be in the same recording studio at the very same time. They were Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee-Lewis, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Although they were not there to record but they did start a jam session. Someone left the tapes rolling, recorded their jamming and later released it under the title of the Million Dollar Quartet.
So, what did these four rock ‘n’ rollers sing when they got together for this impromptu jam session? The answer is that they sang hymns and country gospel songs. Because they all grew up in Southern Pentecostal Churches they drew on a shared background of Spirituals, Gospel and the charismata of Southern Pentecostalism. In creating rock ‘n’ roll each substituted what they deemed as secular words and movements for sacred songs and mannerisms. For example, Elvis’ first musical inspirations came at his Pentecostal church services at the Assembly of God in Tupelo. He later reflected that the more reserved singers didn't seem to inspire much fervor, but others did. They would be "jumpin' on the piano, movin' every which way. The audience liked 'em. I guess I learned from them singers."
As Bill Flanagan wrote in his book ‘Written In My Soul’, 'Rock & roll was born in the American South … The whole history of rock & roll could be told in Southern accents, from the delta bluesmen and country troubadours to the Baptist gospel singers and Okie folkies.' Blues singers included ministers and evangelists, such as Revd Gary Davies and Blind Willie Johnson. Paul Ackerman, a scholar of poetry and songs, wrote the following about Country singer Hank Williams: ‘A country songwriter without a highly developed sense of religious values is rare, so it is natural that Hank wrote many songs with spiritual themes.’ The tradition of Christian socialism in the US is epitomized particularly in the life and music of the folk singer Woody Guthrie.
Something similar occurred as Soul music developed out of Black Gospel. Ray Charles began a trend which was later successfully followed by the like of Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, among many others, when he introduced gospel-singing techniques and the exhortatory style of Pentecostal preachers into his vocal style and adapted church-based songs into R&B hits. Tony Cummings wrote that: 'From James Brown to Diana Ross, black singers consistently show their origins to be a storefront church in Harlem or Macon or Detroit ... it’s a cliché. Every soul artist interviewed seems to have an identikit story – “I was always interested in music. I sang in a church choir.'
All of which means that rock and soul music has a spirit that derives from the exuberance and ecstasy of Gospel music (songs like Every time I feel the Spirit and Up Above My Head). This inspirational spirit informs the music regardless of its often-secularized content. Gayle Wald wrote that: ‘Like rock music, Pentecostalism tapped into something -- a Holy Spirit -- or human spirit? Whatever it was, it was deep and it seems to embody the sacred-secular tensions that run throughout the amazing story of rock.’ The entire purpose of Pentecostalism was to play music that most let its adherents feel the Holy Spirit in their bodies. It is that spirit that is transposed into the feel and flow of rock and soul and it is this that gives rock and soul its affective nature. As James Cosby writes this is where ‘the heart, joy and sheer exhilaration of rock 'n' roll comes from.’
Rock ‘n’ Roll merged blues (with its spiritual strand) and Country music (tapping its white gospel) while Soul music adapted much of its sound and content from Black Gospel. For both, their gestures and movements were adopted from Pentecostalism. Some, such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Sam Cooke, felt guilt at secularising Gospel while others, like Johnny Cash, arrived at a hard-earned integration of faith and music.
All experienced opposition from a Church angry at its songs and influence being appropriated for secular ends. This opposition fed a narrative that, on both sides, equated rock and pop with hedonism and rebellion, with the born-again Cliff Richard often perceived (both positively and negatively) as the only alternative. Rock music was called ‘The Devil’s Music’ as it emerged from the secular culture of the 1950s. 'Conservative Christians in the United States were by turns hostile to the transgressive race-mixing early-1950s rock ’n’ roll and Elvis Presley’s hip-grinding sexuality, relieved by the early-1960s white-boy surf and hot-rod bands, and subsequently horrified by the Beatles.' Despite this, the roots of rock and roll uncover the first way in which rock and religion have been fused, with the early rock and soul artists such as Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Sam Cooke all secularising Gospel music.
Each of these faced anxiety over their decision to substitute secular words and movements for sacred songs and mannerisms and that anxiety leads to two related strands within the interweaving of rock and religion. The first is that of rock stars who give up their rock star life in order to practice their religion or who oscillate between the two. Examples include Little Richard, who became, for a time, an evangelist of the Universal Church of the Remnant of God, and Al Green, who continues to lead his own church. An example from Islam is that of Cat Stevens, who has later returned to performance as Yusuf.
In the early and mid-1970s, the release of songs like “Let’s Stay Together,” “Love and Happiness,” “Tired of Being Alone,” and “Take Me to The River” made Al Green one of the most successful soul and pop singers in the world. However, as the decade progressed, Green suffered an existential crisis, prompted by a questioning of his own increasingly decadent lifestyle, as well as by the death of a girlfriend who scalded him with hot grits before shooting and killing herself. He also claims to have had a religious reawakening after performing a concert at Disneyland, as well as periodic meltdowns on stage. All of this led to his abandonment of popular music, his purchase of a Memphis church building, his installation of himself as the pastor of that church, and the start of a part-time career as gospel artist. The 1984 film GOSPEL ACCORDING TO AL GREEN tells Green’s story and shows the continuing power of his performances and the intimacy of his storytelling.
A less drastic alternative was to record Gospel albums alongside secular albums, a strategy used by many from Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard to Aretha Franklin. Ron Wynn writes of Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace that ‘Franklin disproved the notion that once you leave the church, you can't go back. She returned in triumph on this 1972 double album, making what might be her greatest release ever in any style. Her voice was chilling, making it seem as if God and the angels were conducting a service alongside Franklin, Rev. James Cleveland, the Southern California Community Choir, and everyone else in attendance. Her versions of "How I Got Over" and "You've Got a Friend" are legendary.’
With the majority of Soul stars having begun singing in Church, many of the most effective integrations of faith and music were found there with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and the Gospel-folk of the Staple Singers being among the best and most socially committed examples. Gospel featured directly with Billy Preston, Edwin Hawkins Singers and with Aretha Franklin’s gospel albums. Mainstream use of Christian themes or imagery in rock were initially either unsustained (e.g. Blind Faith’s ‘Presence of the Lord’ and Norman Greenbaum’s ‘Spirit in the Sky’) or obscure (e.g. C.O.B.’s Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart and Bill Fay’s Time of the Last Persecution).
This is where Russ Ballard’s song ‘God gave Rock and Roll to You’, written for Argent but made famous by Kiss, fits in this story. ‘God Gave Rock And Roll To You represented the end of his own dark night of the soul. “I felt blissful when I started writing God Gave Rock And Roll To You,” he reflects, “and that was the opposite of how I’d felt the year before. My parents had both been really ill; my dad had prostate cancer, my mum had bowel cancer, at the same time. I’d felt so low.’
“It was wonderful to feel myself come out of that depression,” Ballard recalls. “I felt so ‘up’. It probably only took twenty minutes to write it. I’d always liked gospel. With the lyric, I was saying that we live on this incredible planet, and when you find a passion, this world makes sense. Whereas, if you settle for a job to pay the bills, it’s very sad.”
‘Russ Ballard believes God Gave Rock And Roll To You’s message lives on, now more than ever. “I think the song will resonate for the next hundred years,” he considers, “whether people want to believe there’s a god or not. For me, music has been my saviour. God gave rock’n’roll to me, basically. That’s what I was trying to say.”’ (https://www.loudersound.com/features/argent-god-gave-rock-and-roll-to-you-the-story-behind-the-song)
This situation changed in three ways, however. First, the Church began to appropriate rock and pop to speak explicitly about Christian faith. This led to the emergence of a new genre, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), with interaction between CCM and the mainstream. Mainstream artists such as Philip Bailey, David Grant, Al Green, Larry Norman and Candi Staton developed CCM careers while artists originally within CCM such as Delirious?, Martyn Joseph, Julie Miller, Leslie (Sam) Phillips, Sixpence None The Richer and Switchfoot achieved varying levels of mainstream exposure and success. One result was that 'rock music became the musical lingua franca of emerging non-denominational Evangelicalism: the music that the conservative Evangelicals rejected became the cornerstone of Evangelical liturgy.'
Larry Norman is often thought of as one of the founding figures of CCM but actually began his career recording for mainstream record labels and singing songs that named the name of Jesus and critiqued the society in which he lived. As a pioneer in writing Rock music explicitly from the perspective of a Christian, he attracted criticism from the Church and from the record industry with critics claiming that he was “too rock and roll for the Church and too religious for the rock and rollers.” Eventually, the pressure from the record companies became too much and he launched his own record label which played an important role in establishing the separate strand of music that we now know as CCM. However, while he was recording for mainstream labels, he wrote many songs that were not simply about the light of Christ but also about what you can see by that light. An example is the song Nightmare#71 from ‘So Long Ago The Garden’ which uses a dream format to speak a prophetic warning to Western society that is still relevant even though it was first released in 1973.
Second, the biblical language and imagery of stars like Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits and Nick Cave began to be understood and appreciated (helped to varying degrees by explicitly ‘Christian’ periods in the work of Dylan and Van the Man).
Dylan comes from the tradition of hobo singers (Woody Guthrie) and beat poets (Jack Kerouac) for whom the journey and the documenting of their experience is life itself. Dylan as journeyman, as traveller, is the key insight of the liner notes for ‘Tell Tale Signs’ where Larry Sloman signs off with a paragraph quoting a myriad of Dylan's lyrics:
"He ain't talking, but he's still walking, heart burning, still yearning. He's trampling through the mud, through the blistering sun, getting damp from the misty rain. He's got his top hat on, ambling along with his cane, stopping to watch all the young men and young women in their bright-coloured clothes cavorting in the park. Despite all the grief and devastation he's seen on his odyssey, his heart isn't weary, it's light and free, bursting all over with affection for all those who sailed with him. Deep down he knows that his loyal and much-loved companions approve of him and share his code. And it's dawn now, the sun beginning to shine down on him and his heart is still in the Highlands, over those hills, far away. But there's a way to get there and if anyone can, he'll figure it out. And in the meantime, he's already there in his mind. That mind decidedly out of time. And we're all that much richer for his journey."
Dylan's manifesto for his work is A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall; a song about walking through a world which is surreal and unjust and singing what he sees:
"I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it,
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin' ..."
In the song he walks through a surreal and unjust world, ahead of him he sees a gathering apocalyptic storm and he resolves to walk in the shadow of the storm and sing out what he sees:
"... 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten,
Where black is the colour, where none is the number.
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect from the mountain so that all souls can see it ...".
This then is the other key element to Dylan's journey and work; the idea of journeying in face of the coming apocalypse. What we have in the best of Dylan is a contemporary Pilgrim, Dante or Rimbaud on a compassionate journey, undertaken in the eye of the Apocalypse, to stand with the damned at the heart of the darkness that is twentieth century culture.
Third, musicians such as After The Fire, The Alarm, T. Bone Burnett, The Call, Peter Case, Bruce Cockburn, Deacon Blue, Extreme, Galactic Cowboys, Innocence Mission, Kings X, Lone Justice, Buddy & Julie Miller, Over The Rhine, Ricky Ross, 16 Horsepower, The Staple Singers, U2, Violent Femmes, Gillian Welch, Jim White, and Victoria Williams rather than singing about the light (of Christ) instead sang about the world which they saw through the light (of Christ).
As rock and pop fragmented into a myriad of genres, this approach to the expression of faith continues in the work of Eric Bibb, Blessid Union of Souls, Creed, Brandon Flowers, Good Charlotte, Ben Harper, Michael Kiwanuka, Ed Kowalczyk, Lifehouse, Live, Low, Neal Morse, Mumford and Sons, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Scott Stapp, and Woven Hand.
The Staple Singers have been called “God’s greatest hitmakers.” Steeped in the music of the church, this singing family from Mississippi crossed into the pop mainstream without compromising their gospel roots. The clan’s musical signatures have been patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples’ gospel-based songwriting and bluesy guitar, Mavis Staples’ rich, raspy vocals and the supple, ringing harmonies of Cleotha and Yvonne Staples. In the '60s they transitioned from strictly gospel songs to freedom songs and then to message songs like 'Respect Yourself', 'If You Are Ready (Come Go With Me)', 'Reach Out, Touch A Hand' and 'I'll Take You There'. As a result, the Staples Singers have left an imprint of soulful voices, social activism, religious conviction and danceable “message music” across the decades since the release of “Uncloudy Day” in 1956.
T. Bone Burnett is a Southern musician who got his first major break playing in the band for Dylan’s Rolling Thunder tour and has gone on to have a successful recording and production career. It is Burnette who said that he “learned early on that if you believe Jesus is the Light of the World there are two kinds of song you can write – you can write songs about the light or about what you might see by the light.” Burnett has written a number of witty, erudite and critically acclaimed songs that address the distortions about which O’Connor wrote. In Hefner & Disney, a short story set to music, Burnette turns our understanding of the stories we tell ourselves on their head and claims that in our sentimentality and sensuality we are all dupes of the wicked King who wants to rob the children of their dreams.
Through his soundtrack to the film ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’ and the subsequent ‘Down From The Mountain’ concert and film, Burnett played a part in a resurgence of interest in the country and bluegrass music of the American South. One tradition that he has highlighted has been the Appalachian country death songs; gothic backwoods ballads of mortality and disaster. The Violent Femmes are one band that have taken this tradition and who have used it to confront their audience with the reality of sin.
At one point in his career, Burnett found that his songs critiquing society were being misunderstood by people who thought he was simply pointing the finger at others. Because he believed that any discussion of morality has to begin with oneself he switched many of his songs from the second to the first person. So, instead of singing, “He couldn’t help but notice her,” he would now sing, “I couldn’t help but notice her.” To reinforce the point he later wrote a song entitled The Criminal Under My Own Hat. David Eugene Edwards, lead singer with Sixteen Horsepower and later Woven Hand, sums up this approach when he says that his songs are all about the fact that we are all in trouble, that we all need a Saviour.
In talking about his album ‘We walk this Road’, which was produced by T. Bone Burnett, Robert Randolph has said of Burnett:
"T Bone opened a lot of doors for me serving as a link between the past and the present. He knows how to take something from the past and bring it into the present while still allowing the artist to make it his own, in the same way that Hendrix took Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and made it belong to him.
T Bone listens to music that our grandmothers would listen to as children – not even music that our fathers listened to, but songs that go even further back ... some from Gospel and Christian blues, the music that people working in fields across the south likely sang nearly a century ago. Those are the real roots of rock and roll, where everything else comes from ...
Before this record, I didn’t sift through music past the Seventies. I didn’t know about Blind Willie Johnson, or Chess Records. I thank T Bone for being a tour guide into the deepest parts of my musical roots. We connected the last one hundred years of African-American music in the way people used to: You write your own songs, you cover other people’s material, you re-work older songs ...
My goal is to open the door for people, in the same way that musical doors have been opened for me. I want to take this musical history and make it relevant to give people a better idea of who I am and where I came from. I think even though I’m a young guy who was born into the era of hip-hop and contemporary gospel, I can help bridge the cultural gap between people who are seventy-five years old and kids who are fifteen years old by reaching back into this history of music.
‘We Walk This Road’ was done in our belief in what we all need right now: young voices saying something positive without preaching in hopes of inspiring people. When you stick to what you believe in, and with the roots of where you come from, things will always work out."
I end with a final and very contemporary example using a quote from John Thompson, who writes regularly on the history of Jesus Music (or CCM):
“The debut solo album by Natalie Bergman, for instance, absolutely does offer a call back to the roots of “Jesus Music.” Mercy, released earlier this year on Jack White’s Third Man Records, blends elements of West African world music, 60s Motown Soul, psychedelia-tinged Gospel blues, and mercurial folk as a backdrop for Bergman’s mournful yet lovely lyrics. Though songs like “He Will Lift You Up Higher,” “Shine Your Light on Me,” and “Talk To the Lord,” all spring from a place of pain and loss after a shocking death in her family, they are as obviously and unselfconsciously devotional as any of the early tunes by [Jesus Music performers] Larry Norman, Honeytree, or Love Song. In fact, I suspect it is precisely because of Bergman’s posture as a person in need, hands and heart open, and with no awareness of or compulsion to cater to market pressures, labels, or expectations in the faith-based economy, that she has been able to craft an album that is so inviting, innovative, and effective. It’s fascinating to me that this year [2021], with two films [‘The Jesus Music’ and ‘Electric Jesus’] delving into the roots of Christian rock and pop, it is a mainstream artist with no awareness of the evangelical subculture who has dropped the most compelling Roots Gospel, true “Jesus Music” album of the last several years, if not decades. One hopes it might inspire other young artists to re-calibrate their concepts of what Jesus Music can, and even should, be in troubled times.”
For more on these themes, see 'The Secret Chord', my co-authored book which is an accessible exploration of artistic dilemmas from a range of different perspectives seeking to draw the reader into a place of appreciation for what makes a moment in a 'performance' timeless and special.
Other relevant books to read include: ‘The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ’n’ Roll’ by Randall J. Stephens; ‘Why should the Devil have all the Good Music? : Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock’ by Gregory Thornbury; ‘Hungry for Heaven: Rock 'N' Roll & the Search for Redemption’ by Steve Turner; ‘The Rock Cries Out: Discovering Eternal Truth in Unlikely Music’ by Steve Stockman; ‘The Rock & Roll Rebellion’, ‘Faith, God and Rock 'n Roll: How People of Faith Are Transforming American Popular Music’ and ‘Rock Gets Religion: The Battle for the Soul of the Devil's Music’, all by Mark Joseph.
Also worth checking out are: the website for ROCK OF AGES: Jesus in Popular Music, a multi-disciplinary research project by Delvyn Case exploring 50 years of secular songs about the Son of God (https://www.delvyncase.com/jesus); and Jesus Is Just Alright, a series of videos exploring the many guises in which Jesus has appeared in pop songs over the past 50 years (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO43Y1gJDjYRhlIaLhyd_ldMyOiZTMa6_).
In the approach to Christmas 2022 several rock memoirs and other explorations of the genre were published that explored the place and influence of religion in rock music. These included Surrender, a memoir by Bono, the lead singer of U2, Faith, Hope and Carnage, a conversation between Nick Cave and the journalist Sean O’Hagan, a memoir entitled Walking Back Home by the lead singer of Deacon Blue, Ricky Ross, and Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song. Greg Clarke, writing about the former two books summed up their themes as being, “Submit, surrender, let God be God, recognise a higher power.” He wrote, “These are the concluding observations of two of the most famous musicians of the past forty years. It’s not very rock and roll.”
In this talk, I want to argue the reverse; that these themes of “Submit, surrender, let God be God, recognise a higher power” are actually very rock and roll. That’s because the roots of rock and soul music are to be found in Gospel music and because a variety of approaches to combining rock and religion have been practised since the birth of rock and roll in the 1950’s with a key distinction being whether one sings primarily about the light of Christ or about the way the world looks in the light of Christ.
In the early days of rock ‘n’ roll a unique event occurred; four of the biggest stars at the time happened to all be in the same recording studio at the very same time. They were Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee-Lewis, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Although they were not there to record but they did start a jam session. Someone left the tapes rolling, recorded their jamming and later released it under the title of the Million Dollar Quartet.
So, what did these four rock ‘n’ rollers sing when they got together for this impromptu jam session? The answer is that they sang hymns and country gospel songs. Because they all grew up in Southern Pentecostal Churches they drew on a shared background of Spirituals, Gospel and the charismata of Southern Pentecostalism. In creating rock ‘n’ roll each substituted what they deemed as secular words and movements for sacred songs and mannerisms. For example, Elvis’ first musical inspirations came at his Pentecostal church services at the Assembly of God in Tupelo. He later reflected that the more reserved singers didn't seem to inspire much fervor, but others did. They would be "jumpin' on the piano, movin' every which way. The audience liked 'em. I guess I learned from them singers."
As Bill Flanagan wrote in his book ‘Written In My Soul’, 'Rock & roll was born in the American South … The whole history of rock & roll could be told in Southern accents, from the delta bluesmen and country troubadours to the Baptist gospel singers and Okie folkies.' Blues singers included ministers and evangelists, such as Revd Gary Davies and Blind Willie Johnson. Paul Ackerman, a scholar of poetry and songs, wrote the following about Country singer Hank Williams: ‘A country songwriter without a highly developed sense of religious values is rare, so it is natural that Hank wrote many songs with spiritual themes.’ The tradition of Christian socialism in the US is epitomized particularly in the life and music of the folk singer Woody Guthrie.
Something similar occurred as Soul music developed out of Black Gospel. Ray Charles began a trend which was later successfully followed by the like of Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, among many others, when he introduced gospel-singing techniques and the exhortatory style of Pentecostal preachers into his vocal style and adapted church-based songs into R&B hits. Tony Cummings wrote that: 'From James Brown to Diana Ross, black singers consistently show their origins to be a storefront church in Harlem or Macon or Detroit ... it’s a cliché. Every soul artist interviewed seems to have an identikit story – “I was always interested in music. I sang in a church choir.'
All of which means that rock and soul music has a spirit that derives from the exuberance and ecstasy of Gospel music (songs like Every time I feel the Spirit and Up Above My Head). This inspirational spirit informs the music regardless of its often-secularized content. Gayle Wald wrote that: ‘Like rock music, Pentecostalism tapped into something -- a Holy Spirit -- or human spirit? Whatever it was, it was deep and it seems to embody the sacred-secular tensions that run throughout the amazing story of rock.’ The entire purpose of Pentecostalism was to play music that most let its adherents feel the Holy Spirit in their bodies. It is that spirit that is transposed into the feel and flow of rock and soul and it is this that gives rock and soul its affective nature. As James Cosby writes this is where ‘the heart, joy and sheer exhilaration of rock 'n' roll comes from.’
Rock ‘n’ Roll merged blues (with its spiritual strand) and Country music (tapping its white gospel) while Soul music adapted much of its sound and content from Black Gospel. For both, their gestures and movements were adopted from Pentecostalism. Some, such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Sam Cooke, felt guilt at secularising Gospel while others, like Johnny Cash, arrived at a hard-earned integration of faith and music.
All experienced opposition from a Church angry at its songs and influence being appropriated for secular ends. This opposition fed a narrative that, on both sides, equated rock and pop with hedonism and rebellion, with the born-again Cliff Richard often perceived (both positively and negatively) as the only alternative. Rock music was called ‘The Devil’s Music’ as it emerged from the secular culture of the 1950s. 'Conservative Christians in the United States were by turns hostile to the transgressive race-mixing early-1950s rock ’n’ roll and Elvis Presley’s hip-grinding sexuality, relieved by the early-1960s white-boy surf and hot-rod bands, and subsequently horrified by the Beatles.' Despite this, the roots of rock and roll uncover the first way in which rock and religion have been fused, with the early rock and soul artists such as Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Sam Cooke all secularising Gospel music.
Each of these faced anxiety over their decision to substitute secular words and movements for sacred songs and mannerisms and that anxiety leads to two related strands within the interweaving of rock and religion. The first is that of rock stars who give up their rock star life in order to practice their religion or who oscillate between the two. Examples include Little Richard, who became, for a time, an evangelist of the Universal Church of the Remnant of God, and Al Green, who continues to lead his own church. An example from Islam is that of Cat Stevens, who has later returned to performance as Yusuf.
In the early and mid-1970s, the release of songs like “Let’s Stay Together,” “Love and Happiness,” “Tired of Being Alone,” and “Take Me to The River” made Al Green one of the most successful soul and pop singers in the world. However, as the decade progressed, Green suffered an existential crisis, prompted by a questioning of his own increasingly decadent lifestyle, as well as by the death of a girlfriend who scalded him with hot grits before shooting and killing herself. He also claims to have had a religious reawakening after performing a concert at Disneyland, as well as periodic meltdowns on stage. All of this led to his abandonment of popular music, his purchase of a Memphis church building, his installation of himself as the pastor of that church, and the start of a part-time career as gospel artist. The 1984 film GOSPEL ACCORDING TO AL GREEN tells Green’s story and shows the continuing power of his performances and the intimacy of his storytelling.
A less drastic alternative was to record Gospel albums alongside secular albums, a strategy used by many from Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard to Aretha Franklin. Ron Wynn writes of Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace that ‘Franklin disproved the notion that once you leave the church, you can't go back. She returned in triumph on this 1972 double album, making what might be her greatest release ever in any style. Her voice was chilling, making it seem as if God and the angels were conducting a service alongside Franklin, Rev. James Cleveland, the Southern California Community Choir, and everyone else in attendance. Her versions of "How I Got Over" and "You've Got a Friend" are legendary.’
With the majority of Soul stars having begun singing in Church, many of the most effective integrations of faith and music were found there with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and the Gospel-folk of the Staple Singers being among the best and most socially committed examples. Gospel featured directly with Billy Preston, Edwin Hawkins Singers and with Aretha Franklin’s gospel albums. Mainstream use of Christian themes or imagery in rock were initially either unsustained (e.g. Blind Faith’s ‘Presence of the Lord’ and Norman Greenbaum’s ‘Spirit in the Sky’) or obscure (e.g. C.O.B.’s Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart and Bill Fay’s Time of the Last Persecution).
This is where Russ Ballard’s song ‘God gave Rock and Roll to You’, written for Argent but made famous by Kiss, fits in this story. ‘God Gave Rock And Roll To You represented the end of his own dark night of the soul. “I felt blissful when I started writing God Gave Rock And Roll To You,” he reflects, “and that was the opposite of how I’d felt the year before. My parents had both been really ill; my dad had prostate cancer, my mum had bowel cancer, at the same time. I’d felt so low.’
“It was wonderful to feel myself come out of that depression,” Ballard recalls. “I felt so ‘up’. It probably only took twenty minutes to write it. I’d always liked gospel. With the lyric, I was saying that we live on this incredible planet, and when you find a passion, this world makes sense. Whereas, if you settle for a job to pay the bills, it’s very sad.”
‘Russ Ballard believes God Gave Rock And Roll To You’s message lives on, now more than ever. “I think the song will resonate for the next hundred years,” he considers, “whether people want to believe there’s a god or not. For me, music has been my saviour. God gave rock’n’roll to me, basically. That’s what I was trying to say.”’ (https://www.loudersound.com/features/argent-god-gave-rock-and-roll-to-you-the-story-behind-the-song)
This situation changed in three ways, however. First, the Church began to appropriate rock and pop to speak explicitly about Christian faith. This led to the emergence of a new genre, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), with interaction between CCM and the mainstream. Mainstream artists such as Philip Bailey, David Grant, Al Green, Larry Norman and Candi Staton developed CCM careers while artists originally within CCM such as Delirious?, Martyn Joseph, Julie Miller, Leslie (Sam) Phillips, Sixpence None The Richer and Switchfoot achieved varying levels of mainstream exposure and success. One result was that 'rock music became the musical lingua franca of emerging non-denominational Evangelicalism: the music that the conservative Evangelicals rejected became the cornerstone of Evangelical liturgy.'
Larry Norman is often thought of as one of the founding figures of CCM but actually began his career recording for mainstream record labels and singing songs that named the name of Jesus and critiqued the society in which he lived. As a pioneer in writing Rock music explicitly from the perspective of a Christian, he attracted criticism from the Church and from the record industry with critics claiming that he was “too rock and roll for the Church and too religious for the rock and rollers.” Eventually, the pressure from the record companies became too much and he launched his own record label which played an important role in establishing the separate strand of music that we now know as CCM. However, while he was recording for mainstream labels, he wrote many songs that were not simply about the light of Christ but also about what you can see by that light. An example is the song Nightmare#71 from ‘So Long Ago The Garden’ which uses a dream format to speak a prophetic warning to Western society that is still relevant even though it was first released in 1973.
Second, the biblical language and imagery of stars like Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits and Nick Cave began to be understood and appreciated (helped to varying degrees by explicitly ‘Christian’ periods in the work of Dylan and Van the Man).
Dylan comes from the tradition of hobo singers (Woody Guthrie) and beat poets (Jack Kerouac) for whom the journey and the documenting of their experience is life itself. Dylan as journeyman, as traveller, is the key insight of the liner notes for ‘Tell Tale Signs’ where Larry Sloman signs off with a paragraph quoting a myriad of Dylan's lyrics:
"He ain't talking, but he's still walking, heart burning, still yearning. He's trampling through the mud, through the blistering sun, getting damp from the misty rain. He's got his top hat on, ambling along with his cane, stopping to watch all the young men and young women in their bright-coloured clothes cavorting in the park. Despite all the grief and devastation he's seen on his odyssey, his heart isn't weary, it's light and free, bursting all over with affection for all those who sailed with him. Deep down he knows that his loyal and much-loved companions approve of him and share his code. And it's dawn now, the sun beginning to shine down on him and his heart is still in the Highlands, over those hills, far away. But there's a way to get there and if anyone can, he'll figure it out. And in the meantime, he's already there in his mind. That mind decidedly out of time. And we're all that much richer for his journey."
Dylan's manifesto for his work is A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall; a song about walking through a world which is surreal and unjust and singing what he sees:
"I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it,
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin' ..."
In the song he walks through a surreal and unjust world, ahead of him he sees a gathering apocalyptic storm and he resolves to walk in the shadow of the storm and sing out what he sees:
"... 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten,
Where black is the colour, where none is the number.
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect from the mountain so that all souls can see it ...".
This then is the other key element to Dylan's journey and work; the idea of journeying in face of the coming apocalypse. What we have in the best of Dylan is a contemporary Pilgrim, Dante or Rimbaud on a compassionate journey, undertaken in the eye of the Apocalypse, to stand with the damned at the heart of the darkness that is twentieth century culture.
Third, musicians such as After The Fire, The Alarm, T. Bone Burnett, The Call, Peter Case, Bruce Cockburn, Deacon Blue, Extreme, Galactic Cowboys, Innocence Mission, Kings X, Lone Justice, Buddy & Julie Miller, Over The Rhine, Ricky Ross, 16 Horsepower, The Staple Singers, U2, Violent Femmes, Gillian Welch, Jim White, and Victoria Williams rather than singing about the light (of Christ) instead sang about the world which they saw through the light (of Christ).
As rock and pop fragmented into a myriad of genres, this approach to the expression of faith continues in the work of Eric Bibb, Blessid Union of Souls, Creed, Brandon Flowers, Good Charlotte, Ben Harper, Michael Kiwanuka, Ed Kowalczyk, Lifehouse, Live, Low, Neal Morse, Mumford and Sons, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Scott Stapp, and Woven Hand.
The Staple Singers have been called “God’s greatest hitmakers.” Steeped in the music of the church, this singing family from Mississippi crossed into the pop mainstream without compromising their gospel roots. The clan’s musical signatures have been patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples’ gospel-based songwriting and bluesy guitar, Mavis Staples’ rich, raspy vocals and the supple, ringing harmonies of Cleotha and Yvonne Staples. In the '60s they transitioned from strictly gospel songs to freedom songs and then to message songs like 'Respect Yourself', 'If You Are Ready (Come Go With Me)', 'Reach Out, Touch A Hand' and 'I'll Take You There'. As a result, the Staples Singers have left an imprint of soulful voices, social activism, religious conviction and danceable “message music” across the decades since the release of “Uncloudy Day” in 1956.
T. Bone Burnett is a Southern musician who got his first major break playing in the band for Dylan’s Rolling Thunder tour and has gone on to have a successful recording and production career. It is Burnette who said that he “learned early on that if you believe Jesus is the Light of the World there are two kinds of song you can write – you can write songs about the light or about what you might see by the light.” Burnett has written a number of witty, erudite and critically acclaimed songs that address the distortions about which O’Connor wrote. In Hefner & Disney, a short story set to music, Burnette turns our understanding of the stories we tell ourselves on their head and claims that in our sentimentality and sensuality we are all dupes of the wicked King who wants to rob the children of their dreams.
Through his soundtrack to the film ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’ and the subsequent ‘Down From The Mountain’ concert and film, Burnett played a part in a resurgence of interest in the country and bluegrass music of the American South. One tradition that he has highlighted has been the Appalachian country death songs; gothic backwoods ballads of mortality and disaster. The Violent Femmes are one band that have taken this tradition and who have used it to confront their audience with the reality of sin.
At one point in his career, Burnett found that his songs critiquing society were being misunderstood by people who thought he was simply pointing the finger at others. Because he believed that any discussion of morality has to begin with oneself he switched many of his songs from the second to the first person. So, instead of singing, “He couldn’t help but notice her,” he would now sing, “I couldn’t help but notice her.” To reinforce the point he later wrote a song entitled The Criminal Under My Own Hat. David Eugene Edwards, lead singer with Sixteen Horsepower and later Woven Hand, sums up this approach when he says that his songs are all about the fact that we are all in trouble, that we all need a Saviour.
In talking about his album ‘We walk this Road’, which was produced by T. Bone Burnett, Robert Randolph has said of Burnett:
"T Bone opened a lot of doors for me serving as a link between the past and the present. He knows how to take something from the past and bring it into the present while still allowing the artist to make it his own, in the same way that Hendrix took Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and made it belong to him.
T Bone listens to music that our grandmothers would listen to as children – not even music that our fathers listened to, but songs that go even further back ... some from Gospel and Christian blues, the music that people working in fields across the south likely sang nearly a century ago. Those are the real roots of rock and roll, where everything else comes from ...
Before this record, I didn’t sift through music past the Seventies. I didn’t know about Blind Willie Johnson, or Chess Records. I thank T Bone for being a tour guide into the deepest parts of my musical roots. We connected the last one hundred years of African-American music in the way people used to: You write your own songs, you cover other people’s material, you re-work older songs ...
My goal is to open the door for people, in the same way that musical doors have been opened for me. I want to take this musical history and make it relevant to give people a better idea of who I am and where I came from. I think even though I’m a young guy who was born into the era of hip-hop and contemporary gospel, I can help bridge the cultural gap between people who are seventy-five years old and kids who are fifteen years old by reaching back into this history of music.
‘We Walk This Road’ was done in our belief in what we all need right now: young voices saying something positive without preaching in hopes of inspiring people. When you stick to what you believe in, and with the roots of where you come from, things will always work out."
I end with a final and very contemporary example using a quote from John Thompson, who writes regularly on the history of Jesus Music (or CCM):
“The debut solo album by Natalie Bergman, for instance, absolutely does offer a call back to the roots of “Jesus Music.” Mercy, released earlier this year on Jack White’s Third Man Records, blends elements of West African world music, 60s Motown Soul, psychedelia-tinged Gospel blues, and mercurial folk as a backdrop for Bergman’s mournful yet lovely lyrics. Though songs like “He Will Lift You Up Higher,” “Shine Your Light on Me,” and “Talk To the Lord,” all spring from a place of pain and loss after a shocking death in her family, they are as obviously and unselfconsciously devotional as any of the early tunes by [Jesus Music performers] Larry Norman, Honeytree, or Love Song. In fact, I suspect it is precisely because of Bergman’s posture as a person in need, hands and heart open, and with no awareness of or compulsion to cater to market pressures, labels, or expectations in the faith-based economy, that she has been able to craft an album that is so inviting, innovative, and effective. It’s fascinating to me that this year [2021], with two films [‘The Jesus Music’ and ‘Electric Jesus’] delving into the roots of Christian rock and pop, it is a mainstream artist with no awareness of the evangelical subculture who has dropped the most compelling Roots Gospel, true “Jesus Music” album of the last several years, if not decades. One hopes it might inspire other young artists to re-calibrate their concepts of what Jesus Music can, and even should, be in troubled times.”
For more on these themes, see 'The Secret Chord', my co-authored book which is an accessible exploration of artistic dilemmas from a range of different perspectives seeking to draw the reader into a place of appreciation for what makes a moment in a 'performance' timeless and special.
Other relevant books to read include: ‘The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ’n’ Roll’ by Randall J. Stephens; ‘Why should the Devil have all the Good Music? : Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock’ by Gregory Thornbury; ‘Hungry for Heaven: Rock 'N' Roll & the Search for Redemption’ by Steve Turner; ‘The Rock Cries Out: Discovering Eternal Truth in Unlikely Music’ by Steve Stockman; ‘The Rock & Roll Rebellion’, ‘Faith, God and Rock 'n Roll: How People of Faith Are Transforming American Popular Music’ and ‘Rock Gets Religion: The Battle for the Soul of the Devil's Music’, all by Mark Joseph.
Also worth checking out are: the website for ROCK OF AGES: Jesus in Popular Music, a multi-disciplinary research project by Delvyn Case exploring 50 years of secular songs about the Son of God (https://www.delvyncase.com/jesus); and Jesus Is Just Alright, a series of videos exploring the many guises in which Jesus has appeared in pop songs over the past 50 years (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO43Y1gJDjYRhlIaLhyd_ldMyOiZTMa6_).
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Aretha Franklin - Climbing Higher Mountains.
Monday 20 February 2023
Artlyst - Donatello: The Divine Fused With The Human V&A
My latest review for Artlyst is of Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance at the V&A:
'This is an exemplary exhibition; one that is both beautifully designed and excellently curated. The exhibition flows, spatially and thematically, through open plan gallery spaces with specific spaces for exploration marked by arches that also open up vistas on to what is yet to come. The exhibition itself provides a broad sweep of Donatello’s career, legacy and works set in the context of influences, partners, colleagues and those influenced by him.'
My other pieces for Artlyst are:
Interviews -
Josquin des Prez - Kyrie.
'This is an exemplary exhibition; one that is both beautifully designed and excellently curated. The exhibition flows, spatially and thematically, through open plan gallery spaces with specific spaces for exploration marked by arches that also open up vistas on to what is yet to come. The exhibition itself provides a broad sweep of Donatello’s career, legacy and works set in the context of influences, partners, colleagues and those influenced by him.'
My other pieces for Artlyst are:
Interviews -
- Winslow Homer: American Passage An Interview With Biographer Bill Cross
- Grayson Perry Tapestries On Show At Salisbury Cathedral
- Sidney Nolan’s Africa: Interview With Andrew Turley
- Ilona Bossanyi: Tate’s Ervin Bossanyi Stained Glass Window Mothballed After 2011 Redevelopment
- Louis Carreon: Sampling Art History
- Modus Operandi - What Makes Successful Public Art: Vivien Lovell InterviewedGenesis Tramaine: A Queer Devotional Painter
- Lakwena Maciver: Review-Interview Hastings Contemporary
- Nicola Ravenscroft - Sculpture With A Peaceful Stillness
- Artist Hannah Rose Thomas – Tears of Gold – Interview
- Marcus Lyon: Human Atlas Explorations
- Elizabeth Kwant Interview
- Helaine Blumenfeld: Undulating Structures
- National Gallery Explores ‘Sin’ In New Exhibition – Interview Dr Joost Joustra Curator
- Betty Spackman: Posthumanism Debates
- Christopher Clack: Connecting The Material And Immaterial
- Peter Howson Artlyst Interview
- Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker On The Legacy Of ArtWay
- Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
- Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
- Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
- Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
- Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
- Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
- Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields
- Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar
- The Art Diary February 2023
- Surveying New Exhibitions With A Spiritual Twist January 2023 Art Diary
- Christmas: The Art Of Faith December 2022 Diary
- Soulages And Strange Clay November 2022 Art Diary
- Alexander de Cadenet And Michael Forbes October 2022 Diary
- Spiritual Joseph Beuys Plus More: September Diary
- Holiday Snaps – End Of Summer Art Diary
- Art Search: August 2022 Diary
- Re-imagining Essex July 2022 Diary
- Art Illuminating spirituality June 2022 Diary
- Venice To London May 2022 Diary
- Jacob Epstein, Louis Carreon, Titus Kaphar, Betty Spackman – April 2022 Diary
- Audrey Flack Carlo Crivelli And Robert Indiana – March Diary
- My Art Diary And Other Thoughts February 2022
- And On An Art Note: End Of Year Diary 2021
- International Autumn Art Exhibition Reviews
- Lucian Freud And His Circle Surveyed In Two London Exhibitions
- A Question Of Clay: Strange Clay – Hayward Gallery
- William Kentridge: Merging Politics With Aesthetics – RA
- Winslow Homer: Beyond The Sea – National Gallery
- Hidden Depths: The Woman in the Window – Dulwich Picture Gallery
- Heavenly Visions: Churches As Spaces For Contemporary Art
- In The Black Fantastic London’s Best Summer Exhibition
- Hew Locke And The Christian Roots Of Carnival – Tate BritainLes Lalanne, Schütte And Gursky London Spring Exhibition Highlights
- Sensuous Sickert and Philpot Two Major UK Solo Exhibitions
- Raphael The Human And Divine – National Gallery
- Damien Hirst The Visceral Reality Of Death
- Ali Cherri: Artist in Residence National Gallery
- Surrealism Outside The Usual Story – Tate Modern
- Marcus Lyon Creates Fields of Vision At St Martin-in-the-Fields London
- Van Gogh Self Portraits The Infinite And The Ordinary
- Marvellous Icons: The London Jesuit Centre
- Albrecht Dürer Travels Of A Renaissance Artist – National Gallery London
- Diasporan Identities: Life Between Islands Caribbean British Art – Tate Britain
- Isamu Noguchi: Socially Engaged Art – Barbican Centre
- Pablo Bronstein: A This-World Vision Of Hell
- Bosco Sodi: In The Beginning Of Wisdom
- George Condo Lockdown Works Hauser & Wirth
- Theaster Gates Clay As A Profound Metaphor
- Mark Rothko: Mesmerising And Intimate Works On Paper
- Roger Cecil: A Once In A Generation Welsh Painter
- Tino Sehgal: Location, Nature And Pandemic – Blenheim Palace
- Michael Armitage And The Power Of Art – Royal Academy
- Marie Raymond And Post-War Avant Garde Painting In Paris
- Rachel Kneebone: A Complex Tableau Of Organic And Geometric Forms
- Rodin: Suffering And Conflict – Tate Modern
- Barbara Hepworth: Symbols Of Art & Life – Hepworth Wakefield
- 20th Century Women Artists Challenging Conventions In Britain
- Chaiya Art Awards 2021 Gallery OXO
- Marc Chagall’s Exquisite Stained Glass Window Commissions
- George Gittoes Equal parts artist and warrior
- Keith Haring: Personal Spiritual Imagery
- Sean Scully: Philosophical Poetic Pastoral The 12 / Dark Windows
- Arthur Jafa: The Art Of Cutting And Pasting
- Blackpentecostal Breath: Spirit-Led Movement Jumps From Music To Visual Art
- Made in USA Ed Ruscha An American Perspective
- Robert Smithson: The Archetypal Nature Of Things
- If Jesus Is A Man Of Colour Why Did We Make Him Aryan?
- Cosmic Patches And Quilts Five Exhibitions
- Everyday Heroes: Southbank Exhibition Celebrates Low-paid Key Workers
- Entwining Spiritualism And Art – Three Shows
- Of Church And The Visual Arts
- Has The Word Master Reached Its Sell-By Date?
- The People Behind Community Is Kindness Billboard Campaign
- André Daughtry: Art, Rebellion And Racial Justice
- Salisbury Cathedral 800 Years Of Art And Spirit
- Home Alone Together Twenty Five Artists
- Botanical Mind Online: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree
- Salvador Dalí The Enigma of Faith
- Art And Faith A Time For Seeing
- Andy Warhol: Catholicism His Work, Faith And Legacy
- Kiki Smith: Embodied Art
- Art and Christianity Awards A Positive New Millennium Legacy
- Arnulf Rainer: 90th Birthday Exhibition Celebrated At Albertina Museum
- A Belonging Project And Exiles Loss and Displacement
- Robert Polidori: Fra Angelico Opus Operantis
- Art, Faith, Church Patronage and Modernity
- Contemplating the Spiritual in Contemporary Art
- Mat Collishaw Challenges Faith Perspectives With Ushaw Installation
- Waterloo Festival Launches At St. John’s Waterloo
- John Bellany Alan Davie Spiritual Joy and Magic
- RIFT Unites 17 Art and Science MA Graduates At Central St Martins
- Visionary Cities: Michael Takeo Magruder – British Library
- Van Gogh’s Religious Journey Around London
- William Congdon Holy Sites And The Kettle’s Yard Connection
- Mark Dean Premieres Pastiche Mass At Banqueting Hall Chelsea College of Arts
- John Kirby: The Torment
- Underlying The Civilised Facade
- Curating Spiritual Sensibilities In Changing Times
- Homeless Highlighted: New Beau Exhibition At St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Ken Currie: Protest Defeat And Victory
- Bosco Sodi: A Moment Of Genesis
- Bill Viola And The Art Of Contemplation
- Art In Churches 2018: Spiritual Combinations Explored
- Sister Wendy Beckett – A Reminiscence
- Guido Guidi: Per Strada Flowers Gallery London
- Peter Howson: The play is over – Flowers Gallery
- Camille Henrot: Scientific History And Creation Story Mash Up
- Nicola Green Explores Recent And Contemporary Religious Leaders – St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Art And The Consequences Of War Explored In Two Exhibitions
- Helaine Blumenfeld Translating Her Vision
- Sam Ivin: Physically Scratched Portraits Of Asylum Seekers Exhibited
- Sacred Noise: Explores Religion, Faith And Divinity
- Bill Viola: Quiet Contemplative Video Installation St Cuthbert’s Church Edinburgh
- The ground-breaking work of Sister Corita Kent
- Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
- Michael Takeo Magruder: De / coding the Apocalypse – Panacea Museum
- Giorgio Griffa: The Golden Ratio And Inexplicable Knowledge
- Arabella Dorman Unveils New Installation At St James Church Piccadilly
- Can Art Transform Society?
- Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
- Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
- The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
- Polish Art In Britain: Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
- Refugee Artists: Learning from The Lives Of Others
- The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg
- The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement
- Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition
- Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation
- The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?
Saturday 18 February 2023
Windows on the world (413)
London, 2023
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Lloyd Cole and the Commotions - Why I Love Country Music.
Friday 17 February 2023
ArtWay - Ervin Bossanyi: A vision for unity and harmony
Remembering Ervin Bossányi was an event held at the Liszt Institute in June 2022 dedicated to Hungarian-born artist Ervin Bossányi, best known for his stained glass windows at Canterbury Cathedral.
Art historian Monica Bohm-Duchen, founding director of Insiders/Outsiders, led a panel discussion with family members, stained glass experts and others to explore the extraordinary life and unique cultural contribution of this still too little-recognised artist. I was on the panel with: Ilona Bossányi: granddaughter of Ervin Bossányi; Alfred Fisher MBE: stained glass artist, who worked with Bossányi; and Caroline Swash: stained glass artist and author of The 100 Best Stained Glass Sites in London.
Art historian Monica Bohm-Duchen, founding director of Insiders/Outsiders, led a panel discussion with family members, stained glass experts and others to explore the extraordinary life and unique cultural contribution of this still too little-recognised artist. I was on the panel with: Ilona Bossányi: granddaughter of Ervin Bossányi; Alfred Fisher MBE: stained glass artist, who worked with Bossányi; and Caroline Swash: stained glass artist and author of The 100 Best Stained Glass Sites in London.
The talk that I gave has been published by ArtWay as Ervin Bossanyi: A vision for unity and harmony. The talk is about 'the context in which Bossanyi’s work and vision needs to be placed in order to be understood and appreciated as a unique contribution to the spiritual and religious art created in this period and one having synergies with the work of his peers':
'In Europe and the United States this was a time of a modernist preoccupation with religion and spirituality to which Bossanyi and other émigré artists made an immense contribution, despite the challenges they faced through enforced migration and the loss of work. Bossanyi contributed a vision for unity and harmony embracing all peoples and all faiths whilst being based on the fundamental interactions of human life.'
I first got to know Ilona Bossanyi as a result of a Church Times article that attracted her interest, being based on a conference held at St John's Waterloo that raised awareness of the threat to works by Hans Feibusch and other émigré artists. That article can be found at - https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/11-june/features/features/debt-owed-to-jewish-refugee-art. See also my Artlyst articles on Refugee Artists: Learning from The Lives Of Others and Polish Art In Britain: Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery.
I then interviewed Ilona for Artlyst. That interview about her grandfather can be found at: Ilona Bossanyi: Tate’s Ervin Bossanyi Stained Glass Window Mothballed After 2011 Redevelopment.
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T. Bone Burnett - River Of Love.
Art review: Zadie Xa: House Gods, Animal Guides and Five Ways 2 Forgiveness at the Whitechapel Gallery
My latest review for Church Times is of Zadie Xa: House Gods, Animal Guides and Five Ways 2 Forgiveness at Whitechapel Gallery:
'Central to this installation is a vision of reconciliation, harmony, and unity across generations, between humanity and the natural world, and within the material and the spiritual. Though rooted in Korean heritage and religion, this is a vision that transcends its sources, fascinating as they are, to welcome all who come to reflect in this temporary immersive and meditative space.'
Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here. See also Modern religious art: airbrushed from art history?
Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here. See also Modern religious art: airbrushed from art history?
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Al Green - People Get Ready.
Wednesday 15 February 2023
Poetry review: Fascinating and Feisty - Temporary Archive: Poems by Women of Latin America
My latest poetry review for Stride Magazine is of Temporary Archive: Poems by Women of Latin America, which:
To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, and here, and to read a review written for Stride of two poetry collections, one by Mario Petrucci and the other by David Miller, click here.
Stride magazine was founded in 1982. Since then it has had various incarnations, most recently in an online edition since the late 20th century. You can visit its earlier incarnation at http://stridemagazine.co.uk.
I have read the poetry featured in Stride and, in particular, the work of its editor Rupert Loydell over many years and was very pleased that Rupert gave a poetry reading when I was at St Stephen Walbrook.
Rupert Loydell is a poet, painter, editor and publisher, and senior lecturer in English with creative writing at Falmouth University. He is interested in the relationship of visual art and language, collaborative writing, sequences and series, as well as post-confessional narrative, experimental music and creative non-fiction.
He has edited Stride magazine for over 30 years, and was managing editor of Stride Books for 28 years. His poetry books include Wildlife and Ballads of the Alone (both published by Shearsman), and The Fantasy Kid (for children).
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Denice Frohman - Accents.
'provides a fascinating and feisty insight into the contemporary scene, both those within it and the great diversity of styles, themes and voices found therein. The intent of the editors is to provide a glimpse 'into the huge diversity in styles, poetics, languages and experiences that exist throughout the continent.' ...
In these poems we encounter 'the violence of politics and economics, the strains of exile, the redefinition of gender and race, the violence inflicted on minorities and their languages, the violence of history and official narratives, but also the places reserved to love, happiness and celebration in these new contexts.' The poets they have selected have a 'shared capacity to capture, respond and signify issues that affect the everyday in a globalised world from a local perspective.'
In these poems we encounter 'the violence of politics and economics, the strains of exile, the redefinition of gender and race, the violence inflicted on minorities and their languages, the violence of history and official narratives, but also the places reserved to love, happiness and celebration in these new contexts.' The poets they have selected have a 'shared capacity to capture, respond and signify issues that affect the everyday in a globalised world from a local perspective.'
For an exploration of similar themes, see my February diary for Artlyst - https://artlyst.com/features/the-art-diary-february-2023-revd-jonathan-evens/ - and for more on Latin American writers, see here, here, and here.
To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, and here, and to read a review written for Stride of two poetry collections, one by Mario Petrucci and the other by David Miller, click here.
Stride magazine was founded in 1982. Since then it has had various incarnations, most recently in an online edition since the late 20th century. You can visit its earlier incarnation at http://stridemagazine.co.uk.
I have read the poetry featured in Stride and, in particular, the work of its editor Rupert Loydell over many years and was very pleased that Rupert gave a poetry reading when I was at St Stephen Walbrook.
Rupert Loydell is a poet, painter, editor and publisher, and senior lecturer in English with creative writing at Falmouth University. He is interested in the relationship of visual art and language, collaborative writing, sequences and series, as well as post-confessional narrative, experimental music and creative non-fiction.
He has edited Stride magazine for over 30 years, and was managing editor of Stride Books for 28 years. His poetry books include Wildlife and Ballads of the Alone (both published by Shearsman), and The Fantasy Kid (for children).
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Monday 13 February 2023
The Revd Jonathan Evens announced as the new Area Dean of Basildon
The following announcement was made earlier today by the Bishop of Chelmsford:
"Bishop Guli has announced that the next Area Dean of Basildon will be the Revd Jonathan Evens.
Jonathan is Team Rector of Wickford and Runwell where he has served since May last year. He previously served as Associate Vicar for Partnership Development at St Martin in the Fields in London. He succeeds the Revd Canon Jane Richards as Area Dean of Basildon following her appointment as Continuing Ministerial Development Advisor for the Barking Episcopal Area.
Speaking about Jonathan’s appointment, Bishop Guli said:
“I’m very pleased that Jonathan has agreed to take on this additional role as Area Dean of Basildon. He brings significant experience of parish ministry from his service at Wickford and Runwell and from his role working with a network of churches at St Martin in the Fields. I would also like to thank the Revd Canon Jane Richards for the support she provided to parishes in the Deanery during her time as Area Dean.”
The Venerable Mike Power, the Archdeacon of Southend said:
“It is good news for the parishes of the Basildon Deanery that Jonathan is to become their Area Dean. He will provide support, wisdom, ideas and considerable experience that will be of great benefit, I also want to take this opportunity to thank Jane Richards for her contribution as Basildon Area Dean and as Vicar at St Andrew’s with Holy Cross in Basildon. Please do join me in praying for both Jonathan and Jane in their new roles.”
Speaking about his appointment, the Revd Jonathan Evens said:
“I look forward to sharing with my colleagues in the Deanery in exploring what will support our wellbeing, enhance the flourishing our parishes, and further develop our mission. I am grateful for the support and encouragement of Bishop Guli as we all seek to travel well together in the Deanery, to have the experience of Simon Law and Michael Hall as Assistant Area Deans alongside me, and to be able to build on all that Jane Richards brought to the role and the Deanery.”
Jonathan will be supported by the Assistant Area Dean for Basildon, the Revd Simon Law, who is Rector of Pitsea, St Gabriel with St Peter, Nevendon and the Revd Michael Hall, Priest in Charge at St Mary Magdalene, Great Burstead with Ramsden Crays, who will also serve as Assistant Area Dean.
Jonathan will start in his role as Area Dean on Sunday 12 March, His licensing service will take place at 4.30 PM on that date at St Andrew's, Wickford."
"Bishop Guli has announced that the next Area Dean of Basildon will be the Revd Jonathan Evens.
Jonathan is Team Rector of Wickford and Runwell where he has served since May last year. He previously served as Associate Vicar for Partnership Development at St Martin in the Fields in London. He succeeds the Revd Canon Jane Richards as Area Dean of Basildon following her appointment as Continuing Ministerial Development Advisor for the Barking Episcopal Area.
Speaking about Jonathan’s appointment, Bishop Guli said:
“I’m very pleased that Jonathan has agreed to take on this additional role as Area Dean of Basildon. He brings significant experience of parish ministry from his service at Wickford and Runwell and from his role working with a network of churches at St Martin in the Fields. I would also like to thank the Revd Canon Jane Richards for the support she provided to parishes in the Deanery during her time as Area Dean.”
The Venerable Mike Power, the Archdeacon of Southend said:
“It is good news for the parishes of the Basildon Deanery that Jonathan is to become their Area Dean. He will provide support, wisdom, ideas and considerable experience that will be of great benefit, I also want to take this opportunity to thank Jane Richards for her contribution as Basildon Area Dean and as Vicar at St Andrew’s with Holy Cross in Basildon. Please do join me in praying for both Jonathan and Jane in their new roles.”
Speaking about his appointment, the Revd Jonathan Evens said:
“I look forward to sharing with my colleagues in the Deanery in exploring what will support our wellbeing, enhance the flourishing our parishes, and further develop our mission. I am grateful for the support and encouragement of Bishop Guli as we all seek to travel well together in the Deanery, to have the experience of Simon Law and Michael Hall as Assistant Area Deans alongside me, and to be able to build on all that Jane Richards brought to the role and the Deanery.”
Jonathan will be supported by the Assistant Area Dean for Basildon, the Revd Simon Law, who is Rector of Pitsea, St Gabriel with St Peter, Nevendon and the Revd Michael Hall, Priest in Charge at St Mary Magdalene, Great Burstead with Ramsden Crays, who will also serve as Assistant Area Dean.
Jonathan will start in his role as Area Dean on Sunday 12 March, His licensing service will take place at 4.30 PM on that date at St Andrew's, Wickford."
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Philip Bailey - This Is How The Work Gets Done.
Sunday 12 February 2023
Artlyst: The Art Diary February 2023
My February Diary for Artlyst has a focus on Essex with mention of Big Women at Firstsite, Laura Jean Healey at Big Screen Southend, Liz Magor at Focal Point Gallery, Bridget Smith: Field Recordings, Claire Cansick at Chappel Galleries, and the Well House Gallery:
'BIG WOMEN is bold, brash and brazen, as is needed to embrace the oversized and curvaceous nature of the crescent-shaped Firstsite building. Yet, the variety and diversity found within this exhibition means it is by no means only a one-trick pony, with sensuality and spirituality, as well as satire, also be found in the mix. The main galleries begin and end with fashion statements from Pam Hogg and Yoko Brown. Hogg’s Prophecy began with an altar cloth from an Italian church which, amid its many embellishments, asks the question, ‘Will there be a morning / Will there be a mourning’. Brown’s dress, by contrast, simply turns its wearer into a flower. Merilyn Humphries and Renata Adela create new and positive images of Eve and Lillith, while also exploring Eden and Christmas (Humphries) and death (Adala). Rachel Howard’s St Veronica Reads the News has been well described by Craig Burnett as “a veil applied and withdrawn from the world’s anxious brow”, anguish “transformed into a kind of beauty, or understanding, by becoming a picture.”'
My other pieces for Artlyst are:
Interviews -
'BIG WOMEN is bold, brash and brazen, as is needed to embrace the oversized and curvaceous nature of the crescent-shaped Firstsite building. Yet, the variety and diversity found within this exhibition means it is by no means only a one-trick pony, with sensuality and spirituality, as well as satire, also be found in the mix. The main galleries begin and end with fashion statements from Pam Hogg and Yoko Brown. Hogg’s Prophecy began with an altar cloth from an Italian church which, amid its many embellishments, asks the question, ‘Will there be a morning / Will there be a mourning’. Brown’s dress, by contrast, simply turns its wearer into a flower. Merilyn Humphries and Renata Adela create new and positive images of Eve and Lillith, while also exploring Eden and Christmas (Humphries) and death (Adala). Rachel Howard’s St Veronica Reads the News has been well described by Craig Burnett as “a veil applied and withdrawn from the world’s anxious brow”, anguish “transformed into a kind of beauty, or understanding, by becoming a picture.”'
My other pieces for Artlyst are:
Interviews -
- Winslow Homer: American Passage An Interview With Biographer Bill Cross
- Grayson Perry Tapestries On Show At Salisbury Cathedral
- Sidney Nolan’s Africa: Interview With Andrew Turley
- Ilona Bossanyi: Tate’s Ervin Bossanyi Stained Glass Window Mothballed After 2011 Redevelopment
- Louis Carreon: Sampling Art History
- Modus Operandi - What Makes Successful Public Art: Vivien Lovell InterviewedGenesis Tramaine: A Queer Devotional Painter
- Lakwena Maciver: Review-Interview Hastings Contemporary
- Nicola Ravenscroft - Sculpture With A Peaceful Stillness
- Artist Hannah Rose Thomas – Tears of Gold – Interview
- Marcus Lyon: Human Atlas Explorations
- Elizabeth Kwant Interview
- Helaine Blumenfeld: Undulating Structures
- National Gallery Explores ‘Sin’ In New Exhibition – Interview Dr Joost Joustra Curator
- Betty Spackman: Posthumanism Debates
- Christopher Clack: Connecting The Material And Immaterial
- Peter Howson Artlyst Interview
- Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker On The Legacy Of ArtWay
- Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
- Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
- Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
- Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
- Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
- Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
- Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields
- Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar
- Surveying New Exhibitions With A Spiritual Twist January 2023 Art Diary
- Christmas: The Art Of Faith December 2022 Diary
- Soulages And Strange Clay November 2022 Art Diary
- Alexander de Cadenet And Michael Forbes October 2022 Diary
- Spiritual Joseph Beuys Plus More: September Diary
- Holiday Snaps – End Of Summer Art Diary
- Art Search: August 2022 Diary
- Re-imagining Essex July 2022 Diary
- Art Illuminating spirituality June 2022 Diary
- Venice To London May 2022 Diary
- Jacob Epstein, Louis Carreon, Titus Kaphar, Betty Spackman – April 2022 Diary
- Audrey Flack Carlo Crivelli And Robert Indiana – March Diary
- My Art Diary And Other Thoughts February 2022
- And On An Art Note: End Of Year Diary 2021
- International Autumn Art Exhibition Reviews
Articles/Reviews -
- Lucian Freud And His Circle Surveyed In Two London Exhibitions
- A Question Of Clay: Strange Clay – Hayward Gallery
- William Kentridge: Merging Politics With Aesthetics – RA
- Winslow Homer: Beyond The Sea – National Gallery
- Hidden Depths: The Woman in the Window – Dulwich Picture Gallery
- Heavenly Visions: Churches As Spaces For Contemporary Art
- In The Black Fantastic London’s Best Summer Exhibition
- Hew Locke And The Christian Roots Of Carnival – Tate BritainLes Lalanne, Schütte And Gursky London Spring Exhibition Highlights
- Sensuous Sickert and Philpot Two Major UK Solo Exhibitions
- Raphael The Human And Divine – National Gallery
- Damien Hirst The Visceral Reality Of Death
- Ali Cherri: Artist in Residence National Gallery
- Surrealism Outside The Usual Story – Tate Modern
- Marcus Lyon Creates Fields of Vision At St Martin-in-the-Fields London
- Van Gogh Self Portraits The Infinite And The Ordinary
- Marvellous Icons: The London Jesuit Centre
- Albrecht Dürer Travels Of A Renaissance Artist – National Gallery London
- Diasporan Identities: Life Between Islands Caribbean British Art – Tate Britain
- Isamu Noguchi: Socially Engaged Art – Barbican Centre
- Pablo Bronstein: A This-World Vision Of Hell
- Bosco Sodi: In The Beginning Of Wisdom
- George Condo Lockdown Works Hauser & Wirth
- Theaster Gates Clay As A Profound Metaphor
- Mark Rothko: Mesmerising And Intimate Works On Paper
- Roger Cecil: A Once In A Generation Welsh Painter
- Tino Sehgal: Location, Nature And Pandemic – Blenheim Palace
- Michael Armitage And The Power Of Art – Royal Academy
- Marie Raymond And Post-War Avant Garde Painting In Paris
- Rachel Kneebone: A Complex Tableau Of Organic And Geometric Forms
- Rodin: Suffering And Conflict – Tate Modern
- Barbara Hepworth: Symbols Of Art & Life – Hepworth Wakefield
- 20th Century Women Artists Challenging Conventions In Britain
- Chaiya Art Awards 2021 Gallery OXO
- Marc Chagall’s Exquisite Stained Glass Window Commissions
- George Gittoes Equal parts artist and warrior
- Keith Haring: Personal Spiritual Imagery
- Sean Scully: Philosophical Poetic Pastoral The 12 / Dark Windows
- Arthur Jafa: The Art Of Cutting And Pasting
- Blackpentecostal Breath: Spirit-Led Movement Jumps From Music To Visual Art
- Made in USA Ed Ruscha An American Perspective
- Robert Smithson: The Archetypal Nature Of Things
- If Jesus Is A Man Of Colour Why Did We Make Him Aryan?
- Cosmic Patches And Quilts Five Exhibitions
- Everyday Heroes: Southbank Exhibition Celebrates Low-paid Key Workers
- Entwining Spiritualism And Art – Three Shows
- Of Church And The Visual Arts
- Has The Word Master Reached Its Sell-By Date?
- The People Behind Community Is Kindness Billboard Campaign
- André Daughtry: Art, Rebellion And Racial Justice
- Salisbury Cathedral 800 Years Of Art And Spirit
- Home Alone Together Twenty Five Artists
- Botanical Mind Online: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree
- Salvador Dalí The Enigma of Faith
- Art And Faith A Time For Seeing
- Andy Warhol: Catholicism His Work, Faith And Legacy
- Kiki Smith: Embodied Art
- Art and Christianity Awards A Positive New Millennium Legacy
- Arnulf Rainer: 90th Birthday Exhibition Celebrated At Albertina Museum
- A Belonging Project And Exiles Loss and Displacement
- Robert Polidori: Fra Angelico Opus Operantis
- Art, Faith, Church Patronage and Modernity
- Contemplating the Spiritual in Contemporary Art
- Mat Collishaw Challenges Faith Perspectives With Ushaw Installation
- Waterloo Festival Launches At St. John’s Waterloo
- John Bellany Alan Davie Spiritual Joy and Magic
- RIFT Unites 17 Art and Science MA Graduates At Central St Martins
- Visionary Cities: Michael Takeo Magruder – British Library
- Van Gogh’s Religious Journey Around London
- William Congdon Holy Sites And The Kettle’s Yard Connection
- Mark Dean Premieres Pastiche Mass At Banqueting Hall Chelsea College of Arts
- John Kirby: The Torment
- Underlying The Civilised Facade
- Curating Spiritual Sensibilities In Changing Times
- Homeless Highlighted: New Beau Exhibition At St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Ken Currie: Protest Defeat And Victory
- Bosco Sodi: A Moment Of Genesis
- Bill Viola And The Art Of Contemplation
- Art In Churches 2018: Spiritual Combinations Explored
- Sister Wendy Beckett – A Reminiscence
- Guido Guidi: Per Strada Flowers Gallery London
- Peter Howson: The play is over – Flowers Gallery
- Camille Henrot: Scientific History And Creation Story Mash Up
- Nicola Green Explores Recent And Contemporary Religious Leaders – St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Art And The Consequences Of War Explored In Two Exhibitions
- Helaine Blumenfeld Translating Her Vision
- Sam Ivin: Physically Scratched Portraits Of Asylum Seekers Exhibited
- Sacred Noise: Explores Religion, Faith And Divinity
- Bill Viola: Quiet Contemplative Video Installation St Cuthbert’s Church Edinburgh
- The ground-breaking work of Sister Corita Kent
- Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
- Michael Takeo Magruder: De / coding the Apocalypse – Panacea Museum
- Giorgio Griffa: The Golden Ratio And Inexplicable Knowledge
- Arabella Dorman Unveils New Installation At St James Church Piccadilly
- Can Art Transform Society?
- Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
- Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
- The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
- Polish Art In Britain: Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
- Refugee Artists: Learning from The Lives Of Others
- The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg
- The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement
- Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition
- Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation
- The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?
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Emmylou Harris - Deeper Well.
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